RTD, also known by the name Sucker Without a Brain, is the fourth track on Banjo Story and Fresh Meat + Old Slabs.
Description[]
This song describes a bus, specifically a pedestrian being run over by one and riding "the bus to heaven". This song seems to be heavily inspired from Woody Guthrie, with the rerecorded version on Fresh Meat + Old Slabs being not very different, except for the bridge being cut. Beck noted that his first few performances were on buses. He stated "My first were on buses. I'd get on the bus and start playing Mississippi John Hurt with totally improvised lyrics. Some drunk would start yelling at me, calling me Axl Rose. So I'd start singing about Axl Rose and the levee and bus passes and strychnine, mixing the whole thing up." This likely relates to this song, and maybe he even played this song on the bus.
The song title remains a mystery, as it was referred as "Sucker Without a Brain" on bootleg versions of Banjo Story, but "RTD" on the official version.
Lyrics[]
Banjo Story version[]
A sucker without a brain
Nothing to do again
Step into the street
Like a man on a flying trapeze
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
Isn't just like a dream?
People and sirens and everything
The driver tried to swerve
But he just didn't see ya
Now you're buried 'neath the wheel
Just like a tortilla
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
And after you die, of course
There's a bus in the afterlife
When you die, you're riding
That bus in the sky, take a ride
We can all climb aboard
The fare is easy to afford... when you're dead
Yeah, sometimes you meet a dancer
But this is one ride where you won't need a transfer
Here comes that bus right into your...
Fresh Meat + Old Slabs version[]
A sucker without a brain
Nothing to do again
Step into the street
Like the man on the flying trapeze
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
Isn't it just like a dream?
Sirens and people and everything
The driver tried to swerve But he just didn't see ya
Now you're buried 'neath the wheel
Just like a tortilla
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
When we're dead, we can all climb aboard
The fare is easy to afford
Sometimes you meet a fireman
Sometimes you meed a dancer
This is one ride where you won't need no transfer
Here comes that bus right into your face
Listen[]
RTD - Beck
Banjo Story version.
RTD - Beck (Fresh Meat)
Fresh Meat version.